Best E-Commerce Shopping Cart?

[KIK101]

It is quite a crap tool. Unfortunately Joomla! is quite crap and the only reason why it is so popular because alot of people can make crappy websites easily. Well, well...

[lindamiller26]

Virtual mart is a very good and robust shopping cart. I say this from experience as i use it myself..... security is not an issue as it is highly secure and flexible plus for me it even came with more features than i though i needed...

[picXelplay]

If you have 50,000 products, you need to be on a dedicated server, and better be able to afford it, or else I would be weary of your business model. That being said, Magento hands down.

One other thing you might want to try is Volusion. Yeah, I know it's not open source and its not php/mysql based. But if you don't really care about that, check them out. They are definitely the best in their industry. I have developed on it, and it really has everything you could ask for in a shopping cart.

[Jerin]

Magento is generally very reliable and has a host of features that you might find very useful. I am not sure about the other carts but I have always thought that the best option is to get a custom cart built specifically for you. One that is "scalable."

[dwaynecasey]

Besides for the things you listed out, were there any other benefits you found in Zen Cart that weren't present in VirtueMart?

• * Working USPS shipping
  * Working UPS shipping
  * Working FedEx Shipping
  * Working PayPal IPN and PayPal Express modules
  * Working Authorize.net support
  And when I say WORKING I mean working in that I don't have to hack away at the code endlessly to get it to work..
  * Support forum where both the developers and the community SUPPORT the application and the add-ons, and more importantly both the community and the developers KNOW that's how it's supposed to be. (Apparently the VM community and it's developers do not feel the same)
  * Improved inventory management
  * Improved product attribute management

Let me put it this way.. For TWO YEARS my client had DAILY issues with VM. Orders not processing, processing incompletely, abandoned carts due to errors, etc. Since switching to ZenCart (10 months ago) I've heard from her exactly ONCE and that was to help her with a client who did not know how to use PayPal..

And before anyone brings up the new version of VM, the new version is plagued with some of the same problems VM has always had.. Nicer looking Admin though.. I HOPE VM gets better.. It certainly has potential, but even if the app improves, the attitudes of the developers and that community with regards to support will always make this app undesirable to me..

Questions on the VM forum go routinely unanswered or the answers are vague or the answers are un-necessarily snarky (and not so helpful..) The general community feeling is “too bad too sad”. AND the community at large seems to feel that the developers have NO obligation to provide ANY support for the app they wrote and released.

I see your point and listening. So what are you doing in terms of CMS. Does the client have decent ability to make updates? Do you feel the site looks decent enough for typical content type sections etc. I ask this because I am looking to set up a client with some type of CMS. I've set up Wordpress as a CMS, and like it because of the simple client interface and and its easily customizable. (I know its not a real CMS). My client is going to need shopping cart functionality in the near future as well. Any suggestions?

Respectfully,

[DivaVocals]

Besides for the things you listed out, were there any other benefits you found in Zen Cart that weren't present in VirtueMart?

• * Working USPS shipping
  * Working UPS shipping
  * Working FedEx Shipping
  * Working PayPal IPN and PayPal Express modules
  * Working Authorize.net support
  And when I say WORKING I mean working in that I don't have to hack away at the code endlessly to get it to work..
  * Support forum where both the developers and the community SUPPORT the application and the add-ons, and more importantly both the community and the developers KNOW that's how it's supposed to be. (Apparently the VM community and it's developers do not feel the same)
  * Improved inventory management
  * Improved product attribute management

Let me put it this way.. For TWO YEARS my client had DAILY issues with VM. Orders not processing, processing incompletely, abandoned carts due to errors, etc. Since switching to ZenCart (10 months ago) I've heard from her exactly ONCE and that was to help her with a client who did not know how to use PayPal..

And before anyone brings up the new version of VM, the new version is plagued with some of the same problems VM has always had.. Nicer looking Admin though.. I HOPE VM gets better.. It certainly has potential, but even if the app improves, the attitudes of the developers and that community with regards to support will always make this app undesirable to me..

Questions on the VM forum go routinely unanswered or the answers are vague or the answers are un-necessarily snarky (and not so helpful..) The general community feeling is “too bad too sad”. AND the community at large seems to feel that the developers have NO obligation to provide ANY support for the app they wrote and released.

I see your point and listening. So what are you doing in terms of CMS. Does the client have decent ability to make updates? Do you feel the site looks decent enough for typical content type sections etc. I ask this because I am looking to set up a client with some type of CMS. I've set up Wordpress as a CMS, and like it because of the simple client interface and and its easily customizable. (I know its not a real CMS). My client is going to need shopping cart functionality in the near future as well. Any suggestions?

Respectfully,

It really depends on the site.. Zen Cart has some very decent SIMPLE CMS like functionality (defined pages and EZ Pages) which have been plenty suitable for many of my client sites.. Other client sites I have used a little "template magic" to "integrate" Joomla and Zen Cart. Lately though I have found a really nice method for "integrating WordPress" and Zen Cart. I have lots of flexible options for putting WordPress together with Zen Cart. Either through a blog embedded within Zen Cart, or by the use of blog sideboxes with the blog being a separate entity or by using a combination of an embedded blog with blog content sideboxes.

[ralfeez]

How about multiple vendor shopping carts? I need a solution that will allow multiple vendors to sell on one website. Each will need control of their own inventories. I know that IXXO has one and jMarket is built this way. Does anyone have any experience with this?
thank you,
Ralph

[weatherfront]

For us it is Magento > Magebridge > Joomla.

We looked at Virtuemart but eventually discounted it because we feel more comfortable putting our eCommerce business on a platform where there is a commercial interest in keeping it developed.

We are soon to go live with our first Magento site through MageBridge. That way our design and Web 2.0 stuff is handled by the Joomla front end and the job of earning money is on a solid platform with a real time integration to our Sage 200 back end.

Our plan is to roll out several web sites / stores based on the same Magento instance but with several Joomla sites using various languages and currencies.

It does take a bit of learning and I am sure our first incarnation will be just that - our first! Especially when 1.6 heaves on to the scene.

We know, if it is successful, that it could become resource hungry. For several years we have rented our own dedicated box and don't have any qualms about getting others. They are very cheap when compared to the volumes of business and just a few lost transactions to an overused host.

[WebJIVE]

Awesome thread here on the various shopping carts. We have built over half a dozen cart sites using VM without any major issues. The one thing to remember about VM is that it needs a lot of tweaking to get it installed properly. Once that's done, it's a reliable cart with a lot of features, and lots of free and commercial addons. We have yet to run into a store that we couldn't build with VM. The largest by far is boothmed.com. We have a lot of custom programming in that one but, the customer loves it and when combined with Artio Joomsef, SEO is great.

Now, one thing VM urgently needs is, meta SEO information fields so that you don't need addon SEF products to handle this. Doing this with external SEF tools is a big PITA.

That being said, I too keep my eye out for better Joomla cart solutions. One cart that we have started playing with again is JShop (http://www.jhshop.info) which used to be called ECJC Shop for Joomla.

That project has now spun off to JShop. I purchased the JShop ($38 USD) just to play with it and, WOW! They have really done a bang-up job on reworking this code. JShop is a fork of OSC which has been reworked/recoded to integrate with Joomla. The prior ECJC shop looked and felt like a hacked ZEN or OSC cart turned into a component for Joomla but, now the product admin is refined and easy to use. Attributes are way easier to add than VM and more flexible.

The frontend is clean and easy to customize. The developer has also made it possible to create templates for the store like other carts. We're going to keep playing with JShop and see how it works out. If it seems like it has legs, we're going to just from using VM exclusively to JShop for new stores.

Let's keep this thread rolling since more and more companies are moving products online to augment their brick-n-mortar presences.

[procisely]

VirtueMart hands down!

(Even though its the only shopping cart i have been using but i am really satisfied with it)

[SuperMonkey]

So what's the best Zen Cart option for Joomla then? Anyone actually using any of the above options on a live site? Anyone using JooZen?

[WebJIVE]

We're using VM an JHShop with a move towards JHShop since it's based (was) on OSC.

[SuperMonkey]

We're using VM an JHShop with a move towards JHShop since it's based (was) on OSC.

Thanks for your reply.

Was that a deliberate choice over the Zen alternatives? If so, why? Does it work better than them in some way? Or is it just that you were more familiar with OSC so wanted to stick with that?

How easy is JHShop to modify? As easy as OSC? Or does the fact that it's integrated with Joomla make mods more difficult?

Have you got any examples of the sites you've done with it?

Thanks.

[WebJIVE]

JHShop is better than Zen IMHO because it's a true Joomla component, not an integration, not a bridge or hack. The admin screen is VERY clean and well organized. It's easier to train customers on than Zen (which is an excellent cart but has a high learning curve for non-techies).

[wyerstuff]

I am also looking for an e commerce solution to add to my joomla site, came across Tienda which i understand is in Beta at the moment.
Anyone got an opinion on this vs Virtuemart?

[WebJIVE]

Tienda is VERY beta and more like Alpha still. Give the product another 6-12 months to mature before hanging your hat on it. If were to have to choose right now, I would do VM over Tienda. I would also say checkout jhshop.info along with that decision.

[THT]

I vote for Magento, but for the Joomla based cart, Virtumart is the best for online stores.

[ralfeez]

How are you bridging into Magento? I use Virtuemart for almost everything that is Joomla based, but it is more due to the maturity of the product than it is because I like the product. VM works good, but it is far from flawless. It is just the best that works with Joomla right now. Soon, unless VM really makes a lot of changes, the other shopping carts will catch and surpass VM. May the best software win.
thanks,
Ralph
P.S. - I am still in desperate need of a shopping mall type cart that will work in Joomla. One cart with many stores...

[WebJIVE]

This is how you bridge Magento: http://www.yireo.com/software/magebridge

I would also look into JHShop http://www.jhshop.info

The site is cheesy but, the product works great and the developer has spent a LOT of time moving the product to an MVC model on both the frontend and backend.

[tbto]

This is how you bridge Magento: http://www.yireo.com/software/magebridge

Is using magento bridge like this stable? does anybody has the experience using it? I like magento, but has only used it as a stand alone application, not with Joomla.

[WebJIVE]

This is how you bridge Magento: http://www.yireo.com/software/magebridge

Is using magento bridge like this stable? does anybody has the experience using it? I like magento, but has only used it as a stand alone application, not with Joomla.

http://extensions.joomla.org/extensions ... dlbnRvIjt9

The reviews speak for themselves.

[Cattom]

JHShop is better than Zen IMHO because it's a true Joomla component, not an integration, not a bridge or hack.

Joozen is native Joomla 1.5 component not bridge or hack.

[WebJIVE]

JHShop is better than Zen IMHO because it's a true Joomla component, not an integration, not a bridge or hack.

Joozen is true native Joomla 1.5 component.

Why is this not listed in the JED? Is it encrypted?

I also noticed that the admin interface is still pretty much ZEN and not optimized as a true Joomla backend and frontend seems pretty right out of the box ZEN..

Don't get me wrong, ZEN is a great cart but, this seems more like wrapping Joomla around ZEN and using the Joomla installer to copy the files instead of a true Joomla component shopping cart.

[Cattom]

Why is this not listed in the JED? Is it encrypted?

I also noticed that the admin interface is still pretty much ZEN and not optimized as a true Joomla backend. Still, very... promising cart if you don't mind ZEN's admin learning curve.

There are two files encrypted, which responsible to licensing. Code is open.

Yes our idea to leave native Zen Cart admin panel to make it easy for ZC users who use to it.

[Cattom]

Don't get me wrong, ZEN is a great cart but, this seems more like wrapping Joomla around ZEN and using the Joomla installer to copy the files instead of a true Joomla component shopping cart.

You are totally wrong about just wrapping. Here is example of joozen link generator code (html_output.php) which may prove it

Code: Select all

]function zen_href_link($page = '', $parameters = '', $connection = 'NONSSL', $add_session_id = true, $search_engine_safe = true, $static = false, $use_dir_ws_catalog = true) {
    global $request_type, $session_started, $http_domain, $https_domain, $add_id;
    if (!zen_not_null($page)) {
      die('</td></tr></table></td></tr></table><br /><br /><strong class="note">Error!<br /><br />Unable to determine the page link!</strong><br /><br /><!--' . $page . '<br />' . $parameters . ' -->');
    }
    if ($connection == 'NONSSL') {
      $ssl = 0;
    } elseif ($connection == 'SSL') {
      if (ENABLE_SSL == 'true') {
        $ssl = 1;
      } else {
        $ssl = 0;
      }
    } else {
      die('</td></tr></table></td></tr></table><br /><br /><strong class="note">Error!<br /><br />Unable to determine connection method on a link!<br /><br />Known methods: NONSSL SSL</strong><br /><br />');
    }
    if (zen_not_null($parameters)) {
      $link = 'index.php?main_page='. $page . '&' . zen_output_string($parameters);
    } else {
      $link = 'index.php?main_page=' . $page;
    }
    if (false === strpos($link, '&option=com_zencart')) {
      $menu =& JSite::getMenu();
      $items = $menu->_items;
 
      foreach ($items as $id => $item_data) {
        if ($item_data->component == 'com_zencart' &&
          $item_data->type == 'component' &&
          $item_data->published == 1) {
          break;
        }
      }
      $link .= '&option=com_zencart&Itemid=' . $id;
    }
    $link = JRoute::_($link, false, $ssl);
    return $link;
  }      

You may see call to Zencart functions same time using Joomla API to get Joomla's SEF for Joozen

Code: Select all

]$link = JRoute::_($link, false, $ssl);

Also login and registration system significantly changed and...... many many more.

JHShop is better than Zen IMHO

We can't deny that JHShop is great extension also we cant't deny, that Joozen is Zencart integration. But why better? Most JHShop extensions are already build-in in Zencart.
Actually we using Joomla to make Zencart better and even more powerfull and functional.

[WebJIVE]

@joozen, that last quote "JHShop is better than Zen IMHO" was made back in the stack but, the reason we believe it's better is, as we stated, it's easier to train clients to use and it's more plug-n-play. This keeps our costs WAY down. Training an support are two of our highest overheads within my company. Anything that makes a product easier to use, and is less expensive for us to deploy, we like.

Now, if I have a power user or a ZEN cart customer looking to move to Joomla, you bet, JooZen would be at the top of the list now that we know it exists. We would consider it just like VM and others because that's were I would place it, next to VM..

Why? There is a lot of configuration work for both of those carts to get the store looking good within the chosen template and features turned on and configured properly. Again, it comes down to ongoing training, setup and support costs on our end. Most clients don't even use 99% of the features of most carts so we like to keep it simple.

[se7o]

thank you

i cant write english good

i neeeeeed the shopping Cart Companen

how can i download it?

[newviewit]

Oscommerce is outdated, built on frames and not a good option.

Magento is really what you're looking for if after a full blown shopping cart... it's relatively new and has all the latest and greatest features... and of course it's free with lots of templates.

[ralfeez]

Hello everyone,

I hope next information will be useful for store owners who wants upgrade their shopping carts.

There is a service on the Web which allows to migrate store's products, categories, customers, orders and other data from one shopping cart to different one. It's Cart2Cart - shopping carts migration service.
Currently it supports 20 shopping carts among which VirtueMart, Magento, Yahoo Store, osCommerce, Ubercart, Zen Cart and others.
Find more here:
http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/

Best E-Commerce Shopping Cart?
I prefer VirtueMart because it's for Joomla. Also I like Ubercart because it's for Drupal. Also those shopping carts are free and customisable.
Magento is free and powerfull too. But I think it's little heavy and needs to be a programmer.

This link is very good information Maksym. Thank you. I need this on a regular basis. I will report back on how it works for me.
On the subject of Magento, I like the idea of using Magento in a Joomla website but I am understanding that the only way to do this is to use a third party bridge. Any bridge that I have used in the past takes major customization to get the same look and feel to the shopping cart as it is in the rest of the site. Is this still true? Virtuemart may not be perfect but there is no problem with integration with the rest of the website. It is seamless.
thanks again,
Ralph

[WebJIVE]

The downside to Virtuemart is the development has stopped again and the forums are only really good for some user to user support. The developers are not involved in the forums at all. Right now, the only true Joomla cart components are Virtuemart, JHShop and Tienda. Tienda has promise but it's still at least six months or more away from being a production cart and, pricing for it hasn't been released yet.

Virtuemart is, well, who knows. It needs yet another new dev team and maintainer. JHShop is new, works great but, is not a free cart. The good think about JHShop is the price. It's only $39 USD so, it's very cheap compared to other commercial carts.

Magento is a beast, needs a bridge and yes, you will need some heavy Joompa/PHP experience to integrate this big cart. Full of features but, a heavy product.